Patients Have a Hard Time Figuring Out When It’s Appropriate to Visit Urgent Care. Help Them Out

Community media resources are rife with articles and posts aiming to help readers understand when it makes sense to visit a hospital emergency room vs urgent care vs a retail pharmacy clinic. The Chicago-area Daily Herald just ran one listing complaints appropriate for presentation to various settings, for example. (For the record, their list for urgent care includes allergic reaction, sore throat, ear infection, sprains, animal bites, flu symptoms, minor burns and injuries, and broken bones.) Coincidentally, MedPage Today also just ran an opinion piece in which the author constructed an algorithm that hypothetical patients could use for guidance on when they should go to the ED. While some of his points are tongue-in-cheek (“Symptoms started or made worse after reading WebMD?”), others are on-point (if a symptom is “worse with rest” or accompanied by a fast/irregular heartbeat, go to the ED). Given that many patients who’ve never visited your urgent care operation before are likely to visit your website or social media page before deciding where to go, consider putting together a simple but comprehensive list of the complaints you’re ready to address in a prominent space—maybe under a dropdown tab that says “Visit Our Urgent Care Center if…” or something along those lines. And make sure to provide phone and email contacts in the same space in case they still need help deciding.